Sergey Naryshkin added that American journalists have received "recommendations" to favorably, or even heroically, portray Russians directly implicated in subversive and terrorist activities targeting Russian servicemen and civilians
US media outlets have been tasked by the US State Department with inciting the Russian populace to violently oppose the government, up to and including armed insurrection, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said in a statement on Monday.
"The foreign policy wing of the US government has, in effect, required that what had once been reputable media outlets agitate for subversive actions in Russia. Specifically, they have been tasked with inculcating among Russia’s citizenry the idea that they should violently oppose the government, up to and including armed insurrection," the SVR quoted Naryshkin as saying.
"According to data at the SVR’s disposal, in June the State Department sent instructions to major telecoms and media companies, such as AT&T, Comcast Corporation, Graham Media Group, Nash Holdings, Newsweek Publishing and The New York Times Company, detailing how to falsely slant coverage of events in and around Russia," the SVR chief pointed out, noting that the State Department has morphed once and for all into the type of "Ministry of Truth" propaganda organ described in 1984, the famous dystopian novel by George Orwell.
Major US media outlets have been instructed to "be more proactive in spreading the false narrative that Russia is weak and unable to protect its territories and that it will inevitably be defeated in its confrontation with the West," Naryshkin emphasized.
Additionally, he noted, US journalists have received explicit "recommendations" to portray traitors from among fugitive Russian opposition activists, as well as Russians directly implicated in subversive and terrorist activities targeting Russian servicemen and civilians, in a positive light, or even heroically, especially in a way that would appeal to the younger generation with the goal of radicalizing them and persuading them that a "bright future" for the country can only be guaranteed by overthrowing the current "regime."
The Russian foreign intelligence chief regretted that "[US Secretary of State] Antony Blinken, [US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs] Victoria Nuland, and others of their ilk have led the transformation of the State Department, previously a sensible, sober-minded institution, into a fetid garbage dump full of ‘yellow press’-style trash."
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the head of the Wagner private military company, Evgeny Prigozhin, several days after the group aborted a mutiny as part of a Belarus-mediated deal, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters, Peskov confirmed a report by French newspaper Liberation, which claimed that the Russian leader had met with the Wagner chief. “The president had such a meeting. Thirty-five people were invited to it – all unit commanders and the company’s management, including Prigozhin himself,” he said. According to the spokesman, the gathering took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours.
"Indeed, the president had such a meeting. He invited 35 people to it. All group commanders and company management, including Prigozhin. This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours," Peskov told a briefing.
The details of the meeting are confidential, but both Putin and Wagner commanders gave an assessment of the June 24 events, the spokesman said.
Peskov added that the president had given “an evaluation of the company’s actions” during the conflict with Ukraine, and had spoken about his assessment of the events of June 24, the day Wagner troops marched on Moscow.
“Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and offered further employment and combat deployment options,” Peskov stated. He added that Wagner commanders had provided their account of the mutiny, while “emphasizing that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state,” and are “ready to fight for the motherland going forward.”
On June 23, Prigozhin vowed retaliation after accusing the Russian Defense Ministry of staging a fatal missile strike on a Wagner camp. In the following hours, the company’s troops captured several military installations in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, with some forces marching on Moscow. A criminal case was opened against Prigozhin.
Prigozhin agreed to halt Wagner’s advance on June 24 as part of a deal with the Russian government mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. According to the terms, Moscow agreed to drop the criminal case against the Wagner chief, with Prigozhin consenting to move to Belarus.
Last week, Lukashenko suggested that Wagner forces could be used to defend Belarus, adding that he is “not troubled that we’ll have a certain number of these fighters stationed [in the country].”
Ukraine's Accession to NATO to Have Negative Consequences for European Security - Kremlin
The accession of Ukraine to NATO will have very negative consequences for the European security architecture, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
You know the absolutely understandable and consistent position of Russia that Ukraine's membership in NATO will have very, very negative consequences for the entire already half-ruined security architecture in Europe and will be an absolute danger, a threat to our country," Peskov told reporters.
Kiev's accession will require a fairly clear and firm response from Russia, the official added.
Currently there are no talks scheduled between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but if the grain deal needs to be discussed, it will take place, Dmitry Peskov said.
"No, there has not been a conversation at the moment, but if necessary, it will appear in the schedule. Putin and Erdogan very quickly, promptly coordinate telephone contacts. If necessary, such a discussion will take place. But so far nothing has changed in terms of the deal and we cannot tell you anything new," Peskov told a briefing.
The Kiev regime made an attempt on July 9 to deliver several missile strikes on Russian territory, with all the missiles downed or deflected, no casualties and minimal damage, the Main Staff of Russia’s Aerospace Forces reported.
According to preliminary data, the Ukrainian military delivered strikes by Soviet-made S-200 surface-to-air missiles reequipped for attacking ground targets. Initial reports said that shells from NATO countries were used.
It was below summarized key information on the missile attacks and the reaction to these strikes.
Ukrainian missile attacks
On July 9, the Ukrainian military attempted several missile attacks on Russian territory. It was immediately reported that one missile was shot down near the Crimean city of Kerch, one between Donetsk and Kamensk in the Rostov Region and two missiles over the Bryansk Region 170 km from the border with Ukraine. Although a sawmill and several structures were damaged, no one was hurt in the attacks.
Some Telegram channels highlighted the Ukrainian missiles’ unusual flight path and presumed that this could have been NATO-supplied shells, including British Storm Shadow munitions. In addition, it was also presumed that the missile attack targeted the Desnogorsk nuclear power plant located in the Smolensk Region.
Harsh reaction
Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev came up with the harshest reaction to the Kiev regime’s attacks. If the attack on the nuclear power plant is confirmed, it is "necessary to consider the scenario of Russia’s simultaneous strike on the South Ukraine, Rovno and Khmelnitsky nuclear power plants, and also on nuclear facilities in Eastern Europe," Medvedev said.
However, this scenario is plausible, if the missile originates from a NATO country. In this case, "there is nothing to be embarrassed about," he said.
Missiles fail to hit their targets
On Monday morning, the Main Staff of Russia’s Aerospace Forces issued a report on the Ukrainian missile attack on July 9. Chief of the Aerospace Forces Main Staff Viktor Afzalov reported to Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov on Ukraine’s unsuccessful missile attacks.
As the chief of the Aerospace Forces Main Staff specified, three Ukrainian missiles attacked "the Kerch transport link [the Crimean Bridge] and the Morozovsk airport, with no casualties or destruction."
The Kiev regime delivered strikes "on facilities in Crimea, the Rostov and Kaluga Regions" with Soviet-made S-200 surface-to-air missiles "reequipped into attack weapons with the aim of hitting ground targets." Russian air defense capabilities downed two S-200 missiles and the other two missiles were deflected by electronic warfare systems.
Preemptive strikes
Chief of Russia’s General Staff Gerasimov set the task for the Main Intelligence Department and commanders of Russia’s Joint Grouping of Forces to organize systemic work for revealing storage places and launch sites of S-200 missiles and similar enemy weapons and "plan their pre-emptive destruction," the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
The chief of Russia’s General Staff also set the task to take additional measures within the shortest time possible to provide protection against air strikes.
Responsibility for terror attack
Ahead of the missile strike on the Crimean Bridge, the Ukrainian authorities admitted their responsibility for the terror attack on the bridge in October 2022. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar wrote on her Telegram channel, summing up the results of 500 days of the conflict: "273 days since the first strike was delivered on the Crimean Bridge to disrupt Russian logistics."
The Kiev regime’s responsibility for the terror attack on the Crimean Bridge last fall was also indirectly confirmed by Ukrainian Security Service Head Vasily Malyuk on May 27. He said that "certain measures" had been implemented to "cut off" Russian logistics.
Special operation, July 9th. Main:
▪️The head of the Crimea, Aksyonov, said that a cruise missile was shot down by the air defense system in the Kerch region, there were no injuries or casualties;
▪️Air defense worked in the city of Donetsk, Rostov region, there are no casualties, there is minor damage to the roof, the mayor said;
▪️The Bryansk governor said that the air defense forces shot down two Ukrainian missiles, as a result of the fall of one of them, a sawmill in the village of Bytosh was destroyed, no one was injured;
▪️Medvedev commented on reports of alleged Kiev attacks on the Smolensk nuclear power plant, according to him, Moscow will consider the scenario of a simultaneous attack on three nuclear power plants in Ukraine and nuclear facilities in Eastern Europe if this information is confirmed;
▪️The Russian Armed Forces destroyed up to 80 Ukrainian soldiers in the Krasnolimansky direction in a day, up to 20 in the Kupyansky direction, up to 60 in the Kherson direction, the Russian Defense Ministry said;
▪️According to the agency, the Russian military prevented enemy attacks in the Zaporozhye and South Donetsk directions: the Vostok group of troops destroyed more than 210 militants and 17 pieces of equipment, the South group of troops - up to 180 militants and 10 pieces of equipment;
▪️The head of the press center of the Russian Armed Forces group "Center" Savchuk said that the Russian army also repelled the attack of Ukraine in the Svatov direction. He noted that in the Krasnolimansky direction, aviation attacked temporary deployment points and an ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
▪️In the Krasny Liman direction, the actions of two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups were thwarted. Russian forces neutralized up to 80 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles, one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, as well as one D-20 and two D-30 howitzers;
▪️In the Kherson direction, Russian troops neutralized up to 60 Ukrainian soldiers, one tank, one US-made M777 artillery system, one Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, as well as an ammunition depot;
▪️Russian air defenses shot down one Su-27 aircraft, six HIMARS rockets, as well as nine unmanned aerial vehicles in the DPR and LPR.
Wali Kota Bogor Bima Arya Sugiarto dengan tegas menyatakan soal diskualifikasi pendaftar Penerimaan Peserta Didik Baru (PPDB) tingkat SMP negeri (SMPN) yang datanya bermasalah. Hal itu menyusul temuan dari tim investigasi yang melakukan verifikasi faktual data pendaftar di lapangan.
Tim tersebut menemukan ada pendaftar yang alamat domisili aslinya tidak sesuai dengan yang didaftarkan saat PPDB sistem zonasi. “Kalau di lapangan terbukti KK (kartu keluarganya) palsu, orangnya enggak ada, alamatnya fiktif, coret (dari data pendaftar PPDB). Langsung out,” kata Bima Arya di Balai Kota Bogor, Jawa Barat, hari Minggu, 09/07/2023.
Berdasarkan hasil verifikasi faktual, Bima Arya mengatakan, ditemukan adanya sejumlah manipulasi atau perubahan data kependudukan pendaftar PPDB sistem zonasi. Seperti memasukkan nama calon peserta didik ke KK orang lain, tanpa sepengetahuan pemilik aslinya.
Selain itu, ada alamat pendaftar yang tidak ditemukan. Ada juga, menurut Bima Arya, KK yang diterbitkan kurang dari satu tahun. Padahal, terkait PPDB, syarat untuk pindah KK minimal tinggal satu tahun di alamat baru.
“Nanti nama-nama pendaftar yang terbukti tidak ditemukan namanya di lapangan, di domisili yang didaftarkan, maka nama itu akan dikeluarkan. Sekali lagi, nama itu akan dikeluarkan dari pendaftaran PPDB,” kata Bima Arya.
Untuk menggantikan pendaftar yang didiskualifikasi, Bima Arya mengatakan, nama pendaftar yang berada di bawahnya akan naik ke atas.
Menurut dia, pengumuman terkait pendaftar yang didiskualifikasi belum disampaikan kepada calon peserta didik atau orang tuanya. Ia mengatakan, tidak mungkin pihak sekolah menyampaikan perihal didiskualifikasi tersebut satu per satu. Hal itu, kata dia, nantinya disampaikan melalui sistem PPDB secara daring pada hari Selasa, 11/07/2023.
Bima Arya mempersilakan calon peserta didik yang terdiskualifikasi untuk mendaftar ke sekolah swasta. “Otomatis nama yang di bawahnya akan naik ke atas. Kalau ini (yang didiskualifikasi) out, ini (datanya sesuai) naik ke atas yang di bawahnya. Akan kita umumkan untuk (PPDB) SMP pada hari Selasa, 11/7/2023,” kata dia.
Sebanyak 155 Pendaftar di Tingkat SMP di Kota Bogor Bermasalah, Bima Arya: Kita Coret
Sebanyak 913 pendaftar PPDB zonasi tingkat SMPN di Kota Bogor terindikasi bermasalah dalam proses pendaftaran menggunakan data kependudukan palsu akan di diskualifikasi atau dicoret dari daftar.
Wali Kota Bogor Bima Arya mengatakan, pihaknya menerima laporan dari Tim Khusus, ada sebanyak 913 pendaftar PPDB SMPN di Kota Bogor yang terindikasi bermasalah, karena mendaftar masuk sekolah menggunakan data kependudukan palsu.
“Jadi saya meminta laporan dari tim verifikasi PPDB, yang dipimpin oleh Pak Irwan (Asisten Pemerintahan), dilaporkan bahwa ada 913 pendaftar yang memiliki indikasi bermasalah,” kata Bima Arya saat menggelar keterangan pers terkait PPDB di Balai Kota Bogor pada Minggu, (9/7/2023).
“Dan saat ini sudah dilakukan verifikasi faktual di lapangan sejumlah 763 orang, jadi masih ada sekitar 150 lagi yang masih on progres,” lanjutnya.
Menurut Bima dari 913 pendaftar PPDB SMPN di Kota Bogor, yang sudah terverifikasi menggunakan data palsu ada sebanyak 155 orang.
“Dari angka itu sejauh ini, 155 (orang) tidak sesuai. Artinya tidak ditemukan nama yang bersangkutan di lokasi yang didatangi,” katanya.
Bima Arya, mengaku proses verifikasi faktual pendaftar PPDB ini masih terus dilanjutkan Tim Khusus sampai dua hari ke depan, sehingga masih memungkinkan jumlahnya akan bertambah.
“Ini tentu masih akan kita lanjutkan sampai hari terakhir, karena kita undur sampai Selasa (pengumuman penerimaan siswa melalui jalur zonasi). Jadi masih ada 2 hari ke depan untuk melanjutkan ini,” ujarnya.
“Dan nanti nama-nama pendaftar yang terbukti tidak ditemukan namanya di lapangan, di domisili yang didaftarkan, maka nama itu akan dikeluarkan,” tambah dia.
“Sekali lagi, nama itu akan dikeluarkan dari pendaftaran PPDB. Otomatis nama yang di bawahnya akan naik ke atas. Dan akan kita umumkan untuk SMP pada hari Selasa, 11/72023,” ungkapnya.
Ia juga meminta kepada publik untuk terus menyampaikan seluruh data, jika terjadi adanya indikasi manipulasi kepada nomor aduan Pemkot Bogor.
“Kami membuka kesempatan dari warga untuk memberikan masukan. Dan nanti apabila kemudian (peserta PPDB curang) lolos menjadi siswa siswi diterima, maka nama-nama yang dicurigai bermasalah akan ditindaklanjuti oleh tim, untuk kemudian sangat mungkin didiskualifikasi sesuai dengan kewenangan kami untuk tingkat SMP,” tandasnya.
Virtually all mainstream US and European media have acknowledged that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has bogged down, with Kiev and NATO failing to dent Russia’s defensive lines. Ex-US Marine and geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic gives Sputnik fresh insights into what’s happening, why, and one possible way out of the quagmire for Ukraine.
The White House rushed into preemptive damage control mode on Friday amid backlash over President Joe Biden’s controversial decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.
“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Biden said in a media interview. “This is a war related to munitions, and they’re running out of that ammunition and we’re low on it,” he added.
Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl confirmed to reporters that the US would try to get the cluster munitions to Ukraine “in a timeframe that is relevant for the counteroffensive.”
But the latest news from the front suggests otherwise, with Ukrainian frontline commanders and grunts telling Western media that they’re running low on everything from vehicles and ammunition to man portable air defense missiles, while the much-advertised NATO main battle tanks once expected to turn the tide have actually been pulled back from the front after taking losses.
Still, over a month into the offensive, Ukrainian and NATO officials and most media continue to assure that the battles have been “probing attacks,” and that, in Kahl’s words, the “majority of [Kiev’s] combat power for this fight has not yet been brought to bear.”
“You don’t do probing actions with your best tanks, your best infantry fighting vehicles,” Brian Berletic told Sputnik’s New Rules podcast.
“You do that with forces that are in a certain way ‘expendable.’ And then you follow that up with your best forces to exploit any gains that they might make. They have not been making gains. They’ve been mired in these minefields. And I think what we’re actually watching is a failure to plan for and properly breach these minefields. And it’s being passed off as merely probing actions ahead of the main offensive,” the former Marine said.
NATO Training Hasn’t Turned Ukraine’s Troops Into Super Soldiers
According to Russian Defense Ministry figures, between the beginning of June and July 9, Ukraine has lost close to 1,250 armored vehicles (including tanks), nearly 950 other military vehicles, 29 rocket artillery launchers, 425 pieces of artillery and mortars, two air defense systems, over 500 drones, 22 airplanes, and six helicopters.
It was “extremely unrealistic” from the start on Kiev’s part to imagine that going into the counteroffensive with NATO-trained troops and NATO equipment would somehow transform their forces into an invincible army, Berletic said.
“We have to remember that even though NATO trained Ukrainian troops ahead of this offensive, they did so in a very abbreviated manner. They’re handing them equipment that they then have to learn to use, which usually takes six months to a year to actually effectively learn how to use. And they’re doing this in a training session compressed into just a few weeks. You cannot accelerate something like this. If you rush training, it’s going to play out disastrously on the battlefield,” the former Marine explained.
“There is a reason why the United States trains, say, an entry-level tanker, for six months before they join their unit and begin further training there with their unit. The US military gets these soldiers only for four years. They want to maximize the amount of time they’re actually out doing their job. If they could train them faster, they would. They can’t,” he added.
Mounting Losses
Berletic agrees with the assessment made publicly by Pentagon officials that the Ukrainian military still has more offensive potential left than it has exhausted to date.
But at the same time, he noted, “they have a finite amount of artillery, ammunition to support these pushes that they’re making along the line of contact. And the longer [it] takes for them to make a breakthrough, the less artillery ammunition they’re going to have to exploit those breakthroughs and to consolidate their control over any new territory that they gain.”
At the end of the day, Berletic says, wherever the offensive stops, the end result is going to be a spent Ukrainian force “that’s going to need to be completely replaced, just like NATO has had to do for Ukraine following last fall’s Ukrainian offensives.”
Exhaustion Strategy
Playing on US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comments last year about the US having the goal of “weakening” Russia in the proxy war in Ukraine, Ukrainian military officials and US media have recently brought up the strategy of “exhausting” Russia’s reserves as one of the goals of the counteroffensive.
The reality, according to Berletic, is that Kiev and its NATO patrons are the ones facing exhaustion.
“They have not even made it up to the first defensive lines of Russia’s fortifications. Are they exhausting Russia or are they exhausting themselves?...The balance of power in terms of equipment, trained personnel and ammunition have always been in favor of Russia, especially after the mobilization last year, where some 300,000 reservists…were called up by the Russian government and committed to the special military operation. I believe that Russia was well aware of the scale of this offensive. They are prepared for it. Their military industrial output is prepared to handle the material costs of defending the line of contact,” he said.
Moscow, Berletic believes, is treating the conflict as “a multifaceted war of attrition,” based on its defensive strategy and heavy use of its near-total advantage in air power, and standoff-range missiles and drones.
Russia’s MIC Outproducing Collective West
Reminded of the improvements which have been made in the availability of Russian missiles and drones over the past year, a fact now seemingly recognized even by the media arm of the US State Department, Berletic said these changes seem to demonstrate that the West’s sanctions strategy has failed utterly.
“This is a direct contradiction of everything the Western media has been saying about the sanctions taking a toll on the Russian economy, stripping the Russian military industrial complex of necessary inputs. It doesn’t seem that it has done any of that, and we’re seeing even seemingly the Western media now incrementally admit that...[Russia is] outproducing the collective West, US, and Europe combined in terms of artillery ammunition, things like drones, even long-range precision weapons,” the observer noted.
Additionally, he said, while the West seems to just be “grabbing anything they have lying around and sending it to Ukraine,” Russia’s military industry has been “adapting to the realities on the battlegrounds” and digging in for the long haul.
“There’s been talk recently of sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. If people read the details of that story, they’re actually talking about 155 mm artillery shells that are cluster munitions. And they’re sending that not because it’s some capability that Ukraine needs, it’s because they are out of the high-explosive artillery shells that Ukraine has been using all along. They’re out of that. They’re just sending whatever they have left in their inventory,” Berletic said.
Kiev’s Way Out of ‘Disastrous’ Counteroffensive
Taking stock of the fact that the counteroffensive is clearly not moving in the direction that Kiev and NATO hoped it would, Berletic said that “the whole premise of launching this offensive in the first place” has proven to be “a disastrous decision.”
“There really are no good options left for Ukraine in the middle of this offensive except to stop it and go to the negotiating table, which I don’t think that they’re going to do,” the observer said. Instead, Kiev is likely to continue throwing troops at Russian defenses, perhaps making breakthroughs and taking territory here and there, but at the cost of “catastrophic losses,” which will leave them in a vulnerable position in the end
“We do see them playing games politically. Stories about the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, looking for some sort of pretext to internationalize the conflict and get NATO involved directly one way or another. And this is very similar to the US proxy war in Syria. They used the pretext of Syria using chemical weapons as an excuse to get involved more directly. Ultimately, that didn’t work. But the US military is still there in eastern Syria, nonetheless. And I think they have something very similar planned for Ukraine, because it’s very clear that this offensive is not going to work out the way they wanted,” Berletic summed up.
